


Wooing for Beginners

by sunsetmog



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - High School, Bad wooing, Baking, Cooking Up A Storm, Kayaking for Beginners, M/M, Wooing, pride and prejudice - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2014-07-14
Packaged: 2018-02-08 21:12:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1956309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunsetmog/pseuds/sunsetmog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a girl at school Louis is dying to impress, but Louis ends up impressing Nick instead. </p>
<p>A sort-of bookshop/high school/Saturday job AU with extra baking and not enough fish fingers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wooing for Beginners

**Author's Note:**

  * For [terminaltongues](https://archiveofourown.org/users/terminaltongues/gifts).



> For the prompt: _Louis is trying to woo the love of his life. But, first he needs to read up on all the things he might ever need to know to impress her. Things like kayaking or how to make sushi from scratch. Nick Grimshaw keeps seeing the same bright-eyed red-cheeked teenager make a ruckus in his bookshop._
> 
> My betas are great. Thank you!
> 
> All the books are real books you can buy in the shops, should you wish to. I can recommend the cook book.

Nick is doing an extremely good job at half-heartedly tidying the shelves in the book department in W.H. Smith. It's the least exciting part of his Saturday job, the forty or so minutes before the shop closes, and at best, it's terribly boring. At its worst, he wants to beat himself to death with a copy of the _Wisden Cricketers' Almanack_.

To be fair, seven hours in the book department every Saturday doesn't exactly scream desperate excitement in the first place, but broke uni students have to do what broke uni students have to do. 

"Have you got anything that tells you how to make sushi?"

Nick is kneeling on the floor by the baking books, doing his best lacklustre attempt at making them all stand up neatly. The guy asking him is wearing cropped jeans and a pair of Toms, and it's pretty much all Nick can see of him until he awkwardly clambers to his feet. "Like, from scratch?" Nick asks, brushing off his knees from where he's been kneeling down. 

He's a teenager, the boy asking, wearing a burgundy t-shirt that clashes with his Toms, a scarf, and an unzipped hoody. "Yep," he says. "Like, totally from scratch."

"Right," Nick says. He doesn't spend that much time in the cookery aisle. If he's brutally honest, he doesn't spend all that much time paying attention anywhere in the book department, but he's only worked here seven weeks, and his rent doesn't pay itself. "Um." There's a little, thin book called _Sushi!_ in between two called _Gok Cooks Chinese_ and—entertainingly— _Simply Jiggy_. He hands it over, and the boy, rather dubiously, opens it up. 

"Oh," he says, after a minute. "I thought you just used normal rice. Do you think you can get sushi rice in Morrisons?"

"Dunno," Nick says. "What else does it say you need?"

"A bamboo rolling mat." 

"Sounds a bit complicated," Nick says, peering over the boy's shoulder. "But it says you can use a springform cake tin instead of a pressed sushi mould."

"I don't know what either of those things are."

"I'm not being funny," Nick says, "but are you buying this for yourself?"

"Well, sort of. I mean. Yes." The boy rolls his eyes. "There's this girl, okay, at school."

"Right," Nick says. 

"And I'm going to win her."

"Like a free gift? Or a prize?"

He rolls his eyes again. "No, not like a prize. I am going to win her heart."

"By sushi."

"She really likes sushi. I heard her talking about it in the common room after she got back from maths."

"Magnificent," Nick says. "A worthy plan. Do you maybe want to start with something a bit more—I don't know. Achievable?"

"I thought, how hard can sushi be? It's just prawns and rice and you stuff it together, don't you? I didn't know you needed a mat or anything."

"Have you even _had_ sushi?"

"Well, no. I don't really like fish. I like fish fingers."

Nick doesn't laugh, but it's a hard task. "I don't think you find them in sushi."

"Sushi would probably be better for it," the boy says, a trifle moodily. He dumps the book back on the shelf, not in the right place, and Nick knows that if he was doing his job right, he'd have to neaten that up. He leaves it where it is. "Basically, I can't cook, and I thought I'd just learn this one thing and wow her."

Nick scans the shelves, and comes up with a Sam Stern book, _Cooking Up A Storm_. He flips it open. "This one tells you how to boil an egg," he says. "You could maybe start with that."

"Huh. Suppose." He flicks through it. "It tells you how to make garlic bread, too. I sort of thought you just bought that from the shop. Moules marinare. I'm not eating that."

"Sponge cake with raspberry jam and cream," Nick says, as they flick past the page. "That used to be my favourite."

"Lasagne," the boy says. He stops at that page. "It seems a bit complicated."

"Well, it's layers, innit. Everything's complicated if you've got layers."

"How much is it?" The boy turns it over. "Nine ninety-nine. I could get this. Learn how to cook first, then do the sushi."

"Plan," Nick says. He's quite hot, for someone with unfeasible, unachievable cooking goals and a rather weak plan for winning someone's heart. Nevertheless, he puts it through the till, and takes the boy's scrumpled ten pound note. 

The boy looks at the receipt when Nick hands it over. "Nick," he says. "Thanks, Nick. I'm Louis."

"Louis," Nick says, and if he spends the next few minutes wishing that Louis was trying to win a boy's heart instead of a girl's, so that Nick could be in with half a chance, then no one with half a brain could blame him. 

~*~

He's back, two weeks later. Nick's tidying up the Mills and Boon drop this time, lazily neatening up the shelves with one eye on the clock. 

"Do you have, like, a really easy guide to A level maths?" Louis asks, mooching over to Nick with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Something that, like, tells you all the answers so I can pretend to be a mathematical genius and coach her for her exams?"

"We do," Nick says, "but I suspect you might not be on to a winner if you think a book's going to make you a mathematical genius overnight."

"Suppose," Louis says. He leans against the end of the shelves. "It was just an idea. Anyway, why did you assume I wasn't a mathematical genius? I could be."

"You could be, but if you were, you probably wouldn't need a book to teach you stuff."

"Probably," Louis says. "I cooked from that book, by the way. The one you told me to buy last time."

"Oh yeah? What?"

"Me and my mum made the treacle bread. And then we all had the burgers last week. They were really good."

"Easier than the sushi?"

"Shut up, I'm building up to that."

Nick laughs. "Do you want me to show you the maths books, or what?"

"Nah, probably not. She's signed up for the outward bound course at school, though. Heard her talking about kayaking. Do you have anything about that? I want to wow her when we get there."

"Show off your mad kayaking skills."

"Something like that."

Remarkably, they have a copy of _Kayaking for Beginners_ on the shelf next to all the books on walks in the local area, and an instructional guide for how to play badminton. On the inside front cover is a quote from someone with far too much time on their hands. 

"Before you get serious about canoeing, you must consider the possibility of becoming totally and incurably hooked on it." Nick raises an eyebrow. "This Bill Mason sounds like a right laugh."

"I dunno," Louis says, gingerly flicking through it. "Maybe it magically becomes more fun if you're actually doing it."

"You don't sound all that excited about it."

"We did canoeing at school once, in the local swimming pool. Turning it over was fun."

Nick wrinkles his nose. Out of all of it, capsizing seems like the least fun part. 

"Maybe there'll be rapids," Louis says, showing Nick a picture from much later in the book. "That looks more like it."

"Do you think there'll be rapids on your school trip?"

"Wouldn't have thought so." Louis closes the book. "We're going to the Lake District."

"Do they have rapids there?"

"No idea. I'll buy this, though." 

Nick doesn't point out that Louis' wooing skills seem decidedly lacking. He takes the eight ninety-nine, puts the book in a bag, and watches Louis leave. It's not that he often finds sixth formers attractive, but Louis is quite hot, even if he does seem to have a penchant for rolling his trousers up at the ankle. Nice bum, though. 

He goes back to lazily failing to tidy the Mills and Boon books. 

~*~

A fortnight later, Louis shows up with his arm in a sling and a cut above his eyebrow. 

Nick winces. "How was the kayaking?"

"Turns out capsizing isn't as much fun as you'd think," he says. "On the plus side, it turns out she's a member of the British Red Cross Youth Group."

"Fun," Nick says. 

"Useful," Louis says. "She put me in the recovery position whilst the teachers were getting the car."

Nick glances at his arm, and then the cut above his head. "Did you need to be put in the recovery position?"

"Not really," Louis says. "Anyway, she told me what her favourite book is, so I'm going to read it so we can discuss it in detail."

"Right," Nick says. "Do you like to read?"

"I haven't much," Louis says, "but that might just be because I haven't found the right book yet."

"Right," Nick says again. "So, uh, what book is it?"

" _Pride and Prejudice_. My mum's got it on DVD, but Mum says that I can't just watch it and pretend that I've read it, because she'll know. My nan's got a copy but I'm not seeing her until, like, next month. So I need to buy one."

"Does it hurt much?" Nick asks, waving a hand in the general direction of Louis' forehead and arm. 

"Quite a lot. They gave me painkillers and stuff but it's still sprained. Can't even drive. I hate not being able to drive."

"Rubbish," Nick says. He finds an Oxford World Classics version of _Pride and Prejudice_. "This one all right?"

"It's a bit long," Louis says. He flicks through it, with no regard for the spine. "All right. Can I have a bookmark, too? Something cool."

Nick takes him over to the bookmarks by the tills. There isn't that much that's cool, unless kittens on stacks of books had suddenly made the jump from naff to something better. Louis picks out a Slytherin one with a snake on it. 

"Should have guessed," Nick says, as he logs on to the till. 

Louis sticks his tongue out at him. "I'll see you," he says, once he's paid for his book and his bookmark. 

"Yeah," Nick says, and he can't help but grin as he watches him leave.

~*~

"Oh my god," Louis says, at lunchtime the following Saturday. "Why does everyone say that Mr Darcy is the world's best hero and everything? He's awful. Lizzie should marry Wickham, he's much hotter." He leans over the counter even though there's a queue of people. "I came in on Wednesday but you weren't here."

"I only work Saturdays," Nick says. "I'm at uni the rest of the time."

"Oh," Louis says. "That makes sense. Have you read this? I hate everyone. Well, not Elizabeth, she's pretty cool. I like Lydia as well. She sounds like a laugh."

"Are you, um, buying anything?" Nick asks. 

Louis looks behind him at the queue of people. He picks up a packet of Skittles from the rack. "I'll have these," he says. "And a Curly Wurly."

"Right," Nick says, and puts them through the till. 

"Have you read it, though?" 

"I did it for A level."

"Does it get better? I'm only, like, a hundred pages in. Darcy's just a massive arse."

"I think so," Nick says. "I don't really remember what happens."

"I'll come back later," Louis says, "and tell you every reason why Lizzie shouldn't ever get together with arse-face Darcy."

"I finish at six," Nick says, almost without thinking. 

Louis goes still for just a moment. "All right," he says. "I'll see you outside."

"Be about ten past," Nick says, "by the time I've got my coat on and everything."

The thing is, even though Nick knows that it isn't—he has categorical proof that Louis is straight, for a start—it still feels like he's just made a date. 

~*~

They go for curly fries in the pub just across the road from Smiths. Louis orders a beer, even though he's still on the painkillers, and they go for two huge bowls of curly fries too, one with bacon and cheese, and one with chilli. Nick's starving, so he hopes they're big bowls. 

"I can't believe Charlotte married Mr Collins," Louis says, as they sit down with their stupid numbered wooden spoon in a mug with a chicken on it. "That's, like, the world's worst life decision. She's going to be so fucking miserable."

Nick hasn't read it in about two years, and he suspects he didn't read it all that well then. He hadn't done brilliantly in his English A level. "Maybe she'll be happy. Opposites attract and everything."

Louis makes a face. "It's not opposites attract, though, is it? It's like the worst life choice ever. It's like my mum staying with my dad even though he's a giant knobhead."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Louis says. "He left when I was a baby. Charlotte should leave him and go and do something more exciting with her life."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. Be an exotic dancer. Be a nun, I don't know. Anything's got to be better than that slimy Mr Collins. Urgh, it would be like kissing a frog."

"Good things are supposed to happen if you kiss a frog, though, aren't they? Your prince is supposed to show up." This whole evening is turning decidedly odd. 

"Well, maybe." Louis looks considering. "I think if my prince showed up and he looked like Mr Collins, I'd stay single."

"So, uh, what does your girl think about all of this?" Nick tries to drag the conversation away from handsome princes. Right now, Nick's fantasy prince looks a lot like Louis, and that's just weird all round.

"What? Oh. I haven't talked to her about it. I'm going to get to the end and tell her then. It's better that way, isn't it?"

"Probably," Nick says, as their food arrives. They line the bowls up in the middle of the table between them, and Nick prods at a piece of bacon with his fork. "So, what do you do when you're not trying to win the hearts of girls?"

"Not much." Louis makes a face. "I was Danny in the school production of _Grease_ last year. That was fucking awesome."

"Danny's the biggest part. You must be good." 

Louis blushes a bit. "I don't know," he says. "I mean. I'm good, but I reckon they just didn't have anyone else who was better in sixth form. Like, I'm not brilliant or anything."

"I can't sing at all," Nick says. He helps himself to a huge mouthful of cheese and bacon curly fries. "I DJ sometimes, at uni, but I can't sing at all. My flatmates tell me off if I sing in the shower."

Louis laughs. He's got a really nice smile. Nick hasn't fancied anyone in ages; it's just his luck that the first person he's liked in forever is trying to pull someone else. Someone without a penis. Nick has really bad luck when it comes to fancying people who he might actually have a chance with. 

It's nice, having his tea with Louis. Louis is smart and funny and has a lot of feelings he doesn't know what to do with about _Pride and Prejudice_. He has younger sisters and a mum he adores, and fucked up his AS levels the first time around. He makes about five self-deprecating comments for every twenty things he says, and has the kind of mouth that Nick's having difficulty looking away from. 

He goes to get them another drink each, and then Louis sends him up to get another, and then before he knows it, it's nine o'clock, and Nick's supposed to be coming back into town at ten to meet his friends. He can't stay out, he still has all his work stuff in his bag, and dragging a Smiths bag round a club is a definite no-no. 

"Here," Nick says, thumbing open his phone. "Put your number here, and I'll give you mine, and you can text me when you've finished reading."

"Fine," Louis says, and he hands Nick his phone. There's a picture of Louis and four little blonde girls as his phone background; Nick assumes they're his sisters. He and Louis have accidentally ended up standing really close together, and Nick can see the top of Louis' head, bowed over Nick's phone. 

He'd really, really like to kiss him, and that's just never going to happen. 

"I might come in again next week," Louis says, as they're about to go their separate ways to their respective bus stops. "Getting the sling off on Tuesday. I'll have two hands again."

Nick makes a face. "Be careful, all right? Can't have you bashing yourself up even worse than you already are."

There's a moment where Louis doesn't reply, a flash of something Nick can't quite catch slipping across his face. "All right," he says. "I'll see you."

"Yeah," Nick says, and he turns around and walks towards his bus stop. 

~*~

Nick wakes up on Thursday morning to nine texts from Louis.

_Wickham is a TOTAL BASTARD_  
 _He is a GIANT DICKHEAD_  
 _Still don't get why Darcy is supposed to be the hero though_  
 _Um_  
 _Alright maybe hes not so bad if he owns a house as big as Scotland_  
 _Id put up with a knobhead for a husband if he had a house as big as Scotland_  
 _Wait hes just done something I don't understand but has saved Lydia???????? I don't get it but hes clearly been secretly a hero all this time_  
 _Wait wait ok I get it I get it I am on darcys side_

He hides his face in the pillow for a long minute before daring to press reply. _Did you finish it? And did you go to sleep at all? xx_

He's pressed send before he's even realised he's added kisses to the end of his text. 

He's such a fucking idiot, honestly. 

~*~

Louis doesn't come in on Saturday at all, and Nick can't help but be disappointed. He hasn't heard from Louis since Thursday night, and Nick tries not to be upset about it, since they're hardly even friends, but he can't help it. This is what he does: he gets obsessed really easily, and always with the wrong boys. Louis is straight, and he's interested in someone else, and he's not going to be interested in the boy at W.H. Smith who primarily gets paid for faffing about and occasionally straightening up the gardening books. 

It's just a bit rubbish, that's all, because Louis had been really nice. 

~*~

Louis shows up at some point after half past five the following Saturday. He looks nervous and tired, and the cut above his eyebrow has faded to a red mark that looks like it might scar. 

"Hiya," Nick says, even though his heart is pounding. He's tidying up the Mind, Body and Spirit books. Secretly he thinks they're mostly nonsense. There had been one last week which talked about the effects of bad moods on water crystals, but someone had obviously bought it since then, which is even more distressing than its existence in the first place. "Haven't seen you in a bit."

"Yeah," Louis says. His hand's all still bandaged up, even though the sling's gone. 

"How's the hand?" Nick asks. 

"Oh, uh, it's getting better."

"Brilliant," Nick says. "What can I do you for today? Do you want to take up knitting, maybe? That might be a bit simple, though. A different language? There's a special offer on those language books and CDs. Take up Swedish, or something."

"Nah," Louis says. He fumbles in his pocket. "There's a—can you—" He stops. "Can you look up to see if you've got a book in stock? Or, well, a couple of books."

"Yep," Nick says, stopping tidying up. Not that he was exactly working that hard in the first place. He goes over to the counter and moves the mouse on the computer so that the search window comes up. "What do you want me to look up?"

"It's, uh, I've got them written down." Louis pulls out a crumpled piece of paper and passes it over the counter to Nick. 

Nick looks down at the paper. There are two books listed. The first is called _Queer: The Ultimate LGBT Guide for Teens_ , and the second, _GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens_. "Louis—" He clears his throat. "Do you want me to look these up? Are they for you?" He can't help but ask the last one, even though he knows he shouldn't. 

"They're for me," Louis says, and he sounds nervous and unsure. "But you don't have to look them up. I read them in the library at school."

"So, um, why—"

"I didn't know how else to tell you," Louis says softly. "Or even if you'd want to know."

Nick fingers the paper. He folds it in two, and then opens it up again. "'Course I want to know," he says. "But what about the girl? The kayaking and the reading and the cooking and everything."

"Sushi's well weird," Louis says. "And it's like—all right. I finished that book and I was texting you about it instead of her. I didn't get it. I didn't want to talk to her about it at all. I wanted to tell you I had a massive boner for Mr Darcy."

"Weird," Nick says. He hands the paper back to Louis. "And this is what you've been reading?"

Louis nods. 

"And did it—um—make any sense to you? Reading the gay books and everything?"

"Quite a lot. Not as much sense as fancying you made, though."

Nick looks up at that. "Louis—"

"I made a Victoria sponge," Louis says quickly. He puts his rucksack on the counter. "You said, didn't you, that first time. That you liked Victoria sponge. So I baked one."

"You baked one."

"Yeah," Louis says, and he's getting out a spotty, circular tin. "Here. And if you don't want it, or whatever, can you give me it back because the tin's my mum's and she really likes it. Also. You said you liked lasagne and I was thinking that maybe I could take you to Bella Italia sometime so we can, you know, have some."

"I didn't think you really knew how to bake."

"I don't, really. If it's all horrible you should still tell me it's all right, though. My ego might not be able to take it."

Nick nods. 

"So, um," Louis says. "Do you want it? The cake, I mean. And the date. Any of it, really."

Nick's manager is giving him the evil eye. "Course I want it," he says. "Nobody's ever baked anything for me in my life. Just, like—will you wait outside with it? Until I'm finished here? We're closing in five minutes anyway."

Louis nods. He looks jumpy and awkward and unsure and nervous. 

"I'll be out as soon as I can, all right?" Nick's hand twitches, and he reaches over and takes Louis' hand in his own, just for a moment, and squeezes. "Don't leave without me."

"All right," Louis says. He scoops the cake tin up into his good hand and turns around to walk away. 

Nick can't quite believe that just happened. 

~*~

They go out for a meal together on Wednesday, at Bella Italia. Louis is smarter than Nick's ever seen him before, wearing a shirt and trousers instead of his usual jeans. He's nervous and jumpy, and won't let Nick pay for his share of the garlic bread they have for a starter, or the lasagne they both have for a main. 

"I've just got a new job," Louis confides. "Saturdays in Toys R Us. I'm going to be rolling in it."

"You'll be able to keep me in snazzy hats and co-ordinated knitwear," Nick says, bumping his knee into Louis' under the table. "I'll be your kept man."

"If only," Louis says, and reaches for Nick's hand, holding it on top of the table. He's all flushed red and he's terribly nervous. 

It's lovely. He's lovely, and this is lovely, and Nick keeps smiling even though he doesn't want to let on how nice a time he's having. 

"So, you never told me how great my Victoria sponge was."

Nick laughs, and squeezes Louis' hand. "Best one I've ever had in my life," he says. 

"You giant liar," Louis says, but he looks all puffed up and proud, so Nick's not going to tell him anything different. 

"I'll get you a cookbook for your birthday," Nick says. "All the posh stuff I want you to make for me."

"My birthday's not until December," Louis says. 

"You'll have lots of time to practice, then," Nick says agreeably, and Louis laughs. 

~*~

Their first kiss is by the bus stop down the road from Bella Italia. It's raining and it's got dark when neither of them were noticing, and neither of them have an umbrella. Rain drips off the end of Louis' nose, and Nick can't help but step in closer, cupping Louis' face in his hands. 

"I've been thinking up hobbies you can learn from books," he says, kissing the corner of Louis' mouth. "You know, easy stuff you can master without even trying."

"Shut up," Louis says, tilting his chin up. 

"There's a book that's called, and I shit you not, _Welding for Dummies._ "

"I'd be up for that." Louis presses his mouth to Nick's. He's rain-damp and chilly. "What about tap dancing? You could probably do that without going to any lessons."

"Car maintenance and trigonometry," Nick suggests, after a minute of kissing Louis. "Wood carving, maybe. Latin."

"Stop taking the piss," Louis says, kissing him again. "How do you fancy coming out with me again?"

"Oh," Nick says, stepping closer, and tugging Louis into a hug, careful to avoid his still-poorly wrist. "I was going to ask you that."

[end]


End file.
